Despite the best efforts of Pau Gasol, Rick Fox and WNBA star Tina Thompson, Team Los Angeles fell short in the Haier Shooting Stars contest, finishing third out of four teams in an event ultimately won by Team Atlanta.

Perhaps the loss didn’t hurt Gasol quite as much as the Lakers’ 2008 Finals loss to Boston, but Fox still joked that he’d have to console the Spaniard in advance of Sunday’s All-Star game.

Gasol went along with the joke for a bit, feigning severe disappointment, but wouldn’t go so far as to promise more practice time spent on his half-court shot.

It was Fox who eventually hit Team L.A.’s half-court heave after 55.8 seconds had expired, which took nine collective attempts. Gasol made his 15 footer and needed only two attempts to hit a top-of-the-key three-pointer, but missed all three of his half-court attempts.

TNT’s Kenny Smith, on the other hand, canned his first half-court attempt for Team Texas before he, Dirk Nowitzki and Roneeka Hodges failed to hit from half court in the final against Al Horford, Steve Smith and Coco Miller of Team Atlanta, who won it on Horford’s hit with 1:10 counted off the clock.

Gasol said he’d do his best to get re-focused heading into tomorrow’s All-Star game, the fourth in his career, but it’s certainly going to be tough.